The 12-Step Program For Managing Email Overload

jayfreshuk Gertrude Stein wrote in a 1946 essay: "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." This was long before electronic mail had been imagined, but her words are prophetic, particularly to how email is used in business settings.

The convenience of sending instant memorandums at work has been bastardized to a ridiculous level, and if you're like the average office worker, you're bogged down trying to balance substantial assignments with virtual communication.

To get you on the road to email productivity - or recovery, depending on how you'd like to look at things - follow this 12-step program:

Step 1. Set priorities. Many of us spend workdays in reactionary mode to the demands of our inbox, stopping and starting larger assignments to attend to menial requests transmitted through email. It's important to adjust your routine. "We're constantly turning our agenda over to someone else instead of setting our own priorities," says Tony Schwartz, president, founder and CEO of The Energy Project, a firm dedicated to helping organizations and companies build more engaged workforces.

The first step to setting priorities is to compose a day's to-do list the night before. "For a lot of people who do creative work especially, they need time to dig into the process. But think of the time wasted just by composing a to-do list each morning," says Jocelyn K. Glei, director and editor-in-chief of the 99U series, which includes the books "Manage Your Day-to-Day" and "Maximize Your Potential."

Step 2. Work in focus blocks. Stop multitasking, and instead think of the items on each day's to-do list in terms of blocks of time. In addition to cordoning off periods to finish serious work that requires more concentration, you should devote time blocks to handling basics like sifting through email. Glei advises to begin each day with your heavy-lifting tasks. "A lot of time is wasted starting out focusing in on your email," she says. "I'd personally recommend not checking email for the first two hours, just to see what impact it has on your work."

Step 3. Draw up a VIP list. Sometimes you shouldn't keep your boss waiting or expect others to work in the same time blocks that you do. For this reason, Glei suggests you have a VIP list of colleagues or clients whose correspondence you're willing to attend to immediately. Remember two things: One, keep your list exclusive for those who truly need an immediate response, and two, shuffle your VIPs regularly according to necessity.

Step 4. Don't bring portable devices to meetings. Fight the fear of missing out and keep your sticky fingers away from your phone's keypad during meetings. The best solution is to stop bringing smartphones to conference rooms altogether. "It's no different from going on a diet and ridding yourself of the foods you shouldn't eat," Schwartz says. "If the foods are there, you're going to eat them. If you keep hearing that beep or a light flashing for new mail, you're going to respond." Reserve your energy and attention for the meeting's agenda instead.

Step 5. Share your calendars and use email rules liberally. Software like Outlook and Gmail offer options to share folders and calendars, so use them to keep your co-workers and clients updated on your whereabouts and availability to check email. "We're so transparent now with our time thanks to the shared calendar, but use it to alert others to when you're having a designated focus block where you shouldn't be disturbed," Glei says. Also compose detailed email rules for the extended periods when you won't check email - whether it's vacation, the weekend or even while in the office focusing on other projects. Provide contact information for any alternate staff who may handle pressing matters, and that might cut down on additional mail clogging your box.

Step 6. But be conservative with the other email features. Think carefully before you fill out the carbon copy (Cc:) field with those who don't actually need the information you're sending or who might misinterpret your meaning. You may start a Reply All round-robin that takes you off course.

Step 8. Respond to all non-VIP emails one by one in chronological order. If you have a VIP list of contacts who receive immediate attention, and you're triaging junk mail from important items, then you don't need to spend additional time dividing the remaining emails into "respond immediately" versus "wait till later" buckets. Use designated correspondence time to go through remaining messages chronologically. Either respond acknowledging receipt, or convert what needs to be done into a task for an upcoming day's to-do list. Don't banish any emails to one of your Siberian folders until you've taken the appropriate action required.

Step 9. Take out the trash. Each day, delete items that you don't need for reference. Don't rely on your total recall skills to determine what's important and what's not in your inbox.

Step 10. Economize your outgoing mail. Stop sending useless correspondence that states the obvious - for instance, sending a client an email that reads, "I just left you a voicemail message." It's annoying to the recipient; plus, it's a waste of time for you. "It's easier to answer email than to do real work. And so it provides a way of rationalizing why you're not doing the tasks that would really add more value," Schwartz explains.

Step 11. Breathe deeply. Linda Stone, a former high-tech executive for Apple and Microsoft, discovered she was holding her breath when sitting at her computer. She began an informal study in 2007, observing and interviewing approximately 200 people in her home, in cafes, offices and on the street regarding their physiology while using technology. She found about 80 percent were failing to breathe deeply, and called the phenomenon email apnea: shallow breathing or breath holding while checking email, working or playing games in front of a computer screen. "We inhale with anticipation. And usually with email, we're not in a position to breathe optimally because we're sitting with poor posture at a computer or curled over our smartphone," says Stone, who now writes and consults on tech issues.

The overall result is added stress to the body. "Listen around you and you'll hear people sighing while sitting at their computer," Stone continues. "What ends up happening is that these shallow breaths build up, and our body responds by sighing, or exhaling, to get some relief." Stone suggests performing deep breathing exercises at work and during off times. "Do what's necessary to stay embodied at your computer. Take a minute to deeply exhale. Singing in the shower or the car are other ways of learning to be embodied."

Step 12. Respond to emails only when you're at work. Treat downtime as sacred and abstain from email during weekends and vacations. The long-term effect will result in better performance and more energy while on the clock. "People say to me endlessly with some sense of unspoken pride that the only reason they answer email on vacation is that they can't bear the thought of coming back to an inbox of 1,000 emails," says Schwartz, adding that he knows from personal experience this isn't the case. He recently took a vacation to Europe and didn't bring his laptop or phone. "I came back from when I was offline to an inbox of several hundred [emails], but many of them were messages that didn't demand a response."